ATMs go dry in Mumbai

Mumbai: Many ATMs in the city today ran out of
cash on Thursday creating hardships for bank customers as staff of
an agency that replenishes the machines went on a strike.

About 350 ATMs across the city were affected as around 300
workers were on strike, said Sushil Sancheti, CFO of Writer
Safeguard that services HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank.

"Some employees at our company were on strike since
August 8 and we could not replenish the machines. Hence some
ATMs (automated teller machines) would have gone dry," he said.

He, however, claimed that the company management was
able to resolve the issue by late evening. All the machines
will be replenished through the night, he added.

An Axis Bank spokesperson said the bank had advance
information of the strike and hence, asked the employees to
fill up the machines to capacity on August 8 itself. As a
result, only five-six of its 90-odd ATMs in the city ran dry
this morning, he said.

An ICICI Bank spokesperson said the bank`s operations
were not hit as this agency services only three-four machines
in the city, while an HDFC Bank spokesperson could not be
reached.

The reason for the strike could not be ascertained
from the company but banking sources said it was wage
related.